White Collar: An unofficial novel - part 10

A con or a man

To make sure he was not followed, Neal spent the rest of the afternoon, walking around, doing some shopping, and enjoying New York City. When the sun set he was certain he had no tail and joined Peter in the office's conference room.

"I'm sorry you had to keep your beautiful wife waiting," he said.

"Don't you worry about El. We've had an early dinner together, and she is on a catering assignment as we speak. Neal, your foot."

Neal blinked at the change of subject.

"What about it?" Neal asked. Peter held the key. "Oh." He placed his foot on one of the chairs and Peter removed his anklet.

"I'm gonna hold on to this for a while. If Ganz had seen this, you probably wouldn't be breathing right now."

Neal did not mind at all but it made little sense to take care of it now.

"Why now, Peter? It wasn't exactly an unplanned visit to Ganz."

"I didn't want to embarrass you in front of Ford."

"Thank you for the consideration, Peter, but I prefer to keep my life."

He sat down across the table.

"You didn't say anything either, Neal."

Neal leaned forward.

"If you think it is embarrassing to show Ford an anklet he probably know is there already, how do you think I feel asking for it removed with the risk of getting a 'no'?"

Peter looked at him.

"I thought you preferred to stay alive."

"Touché." Neither of them had said anything because of the risk of embarrassment. And truth to be told he was so used to the anklet that he had not thought about it.

Peter walked into his office with the anklet.

"I'm on call?" Neal asked.

"Ganz contacts you, I want you ready, willing, and able," Peter returned to the table and sat down. "Now, he said he already had the tools. What else does he need?"

"I saw Ford's checklist. It's either ink, paper, or both."

"Yeah. You and Ford had a pretty interesting rapport today."

"I know where you're going," Neal sighed.

"Don't need to look in a crystal ball?"

"You think he's a cautionary tale." Somehow his handler saw Ford like it was an older version of him. Because of the hat? Or what? Ford conned June and that was something Neal would never do.

"You want to be like him when you grow up?" Peter asked.

"More fun than sitting in a cubicle." No, he did not want to become like Ford, but rather that than sitting doing pointless office work all day.

"Neal, if ever you do decide to grow up, you should realize this one thing," Peter said and Neal sighed once again. "You can either be a con or a man. You can't be both." Pitty he still stuck to that opinion, because Neal was confident that not only that Peter was wrong but also that he had proved to his handler that it was possible. "Ran accounts on everyone in Ganz's crew. They're pretty dried up. Probably paying for supplies in cash. It'd be good if you could remember the aliases you saw on those I.D.s."

"Joseph Dowd, Kenny Estrada, and Dylan Fleecs," Neal said at once. Peter stared at him. "You didn't ask." Peter still stared. "Well, it's simple word association. 'Dowd,' 'crowd.' Joseph Dowd runs with a bad crowd. Kenny Estrada... He won't say nada."